In Part 2 of this conversation, Anita sits back down with Victoria Bachan, SVP of Creators at Wasserman, and Rana Zand, Partner in Digital at Range Media Partners, to get into the nuts and bolts of what it actually takes to build a lasting career as a creator today.

The conversation opens with a question creators and their teams are always asking: what actually gives you leverage at the negotiating table? Victoria and Rana don't sugarcoat it. Professionalism matters. The creators who treat their business like a business, show up to deadlines, build real relationships with brands, and never stop generating ideas, are the ones whose careers compound. Having had a job before becoming a creator, they agree, gives people a leg up that's hard to replicate any other way.

From there, Anita, Victoria, and Rana dig into where the deal market is heading. One-off brand deals are giving way to longer-term, multi-layered partnerships, the kind where a single piece of content gets rolled out across paid media, digital out-of-home, point of sale, and beyond. The profit margin on deals structured that way, Victoria explains, can be substantial for talent who understand what they're actually signing. And as traditional entertainment turns its attention to the creator space, the deals are only getting more complex.

The conversation also turns to the long-form vs. short-form debate, the emotional demands of talent representation that rarely get talked about publicly, and what Victoria and Rana would be doing if they hadn't built careers in this industry. The episode closes with a lightning round, and a final realization that the three women at this table are all first-generation Americans who helped build this industry from the ground up.

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by Anita Sharma and Phoebe Dunn

Edited by Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy by Maureen Lauren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music by Carmine Mattia

Follow us on socials: @signedthepodcast

Before the creator economy had a name, these two were already building it.

This week, Anita Sharma sits down with two of the most respected women in creator representation, Rana Zand, Partner at Range Media Partners, and Victoria Bachan, SVP of Creators at Wasserman. These are Anita's colleagues, her friends, and her fellow OGs in a business they all joined before anyone knew what to call it.

In Part 1, Victoria and Rana take us back to the beginning, from Victoria's summers on the Vans Warped Tour and her accidental start managing Doug the Pug, to Rana's early days in the WME mailroom staring down a seven-year promotion timeline and deciding to bet on digital instead. Together, they trace the evolution of an industry that went from "begging people to care" to becoming the most talked-about sector in entertainment.

The conversation gets into the real business of creator management: what makes them want to sign someone, why a strong POV matters more than follower count, and how they think about building careers that could survive if TikTok disappeared tomorrow. Victoria breaks down the difference between an agent and a manager using a corporate org chart analogy, while Rana offers the quarterback and football version. Both land perfectly.

They also get into the art of having hard conversations with clients about evolving their content, why burnout is a real and constant concern, and how Victoria once told a client posting eight times a day that her business model was not going to last, and why that was the wake-up call the creator needed to start treating content like a career.

Part 2 coming next Thursday. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it.

Follow Signed socials: @signedthepodcast

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lauren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia

In this special solo episode, Anita Sharma flips the script on Signed: Conversations with Digital Mavericks. Instead of interviewing guests, she's answering the top 10 questions she gets about entertainment law, working with creators, and building a practice in the digital media space.

Anita opens up about her unconventional path to entertainment law, from that lightbulb moment seeing "production legal" in movie credits during law school, to leaving a big law firm in New York, actually quitting law altogether to attend film school, becoming a producer, and eventually founding her own practice representing digital creators.

She tackles the questions she gets most from creators, law students, and industry professionals: Why entertainment law? What were the key moments (including "cliffs she drove off") in building her firm? What did she see in 2013 when she started representing YouTubers that others missed? Her first YouTube client was getting more views than Canada's #1 TV show, and that's when she realized digital creators had all the leverage that her indie film clients never had.

Anita shares practical advice for law students (her networking philosophy: "be nice to everyone, that law student could end up running a studio someday"), insights about the constantly changing digital media landscape, and why entertainment law in the creator economy isn't just about talent agreements anymore, it's about understanding that each creator is their own media company.

She addresses when creators should hire lawyers (when you're signing contracts, and please don't feed them into ChatGPT), whether she tells clients to walk away from big money (it's about fit, not just the amount), and what the hardest part of representing creators really is (no precedents exist, you're making them up as you go, plus the mental health concerns when clients face online harassment).

The episode concludes with myth-busting: entertainment lawyers' lives aren't an episode of Entourage, they're sitting at desks reviewing contracts and filing trademarks, with the occasional fun screening or party as a bonus.

This episode offers honest insights about failure, persistence, relationship-building in entertainment, and why sometimes you have to quit law to become a better lawyer. Essential listening for anyone interested in entertainment law, the creator economy, or understanding what really happens behind the contracts.

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Creative Producer: Khairi Williams

Script Editor: Mac Montandon

Technical Production Support Provided By: Seth Richardson

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lloren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia

Follow us at @signedthepodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube!